Student elected to represent Kimberley is youngest new councillor in county

Coun Will Mee, who is in his first year reading politics at York University, said it “still doesn’t feel real” after he found out he had been elected.

Coun Mee, who also works part-time at Iceland, will represent the Kimberley ward. He is the youngest of all the new councillors elected in Nottinghamshire following the latest elections.

Fellow Labour candidates Coun Chris Carr and Coun Andy Coope also won seats, meaning Conservative Shane Easom was ousted from the council.

Former Conservative Mel Crow, and Independent Richard Robinson, chose not to stand again.

The Labour group gained 26 seats out of a possible 44 in the May 4 election, compared with the 14 seats it held after 2019.

The Conservative Party won 10 seats while five Liberal Democrats and three Independents were also elected.

Coun Mee said he was initially put forward as a “paper candidate”, to ensure Labuor had a candidate in the ward.

He said: “I never expected to get this far so it was a shock and a surprise when I was elected.

“At first I thought there was no way I would get in, but towards the end, I started to think I had a chance – the Tories didn’t do any campaigning.

“It was fantastic on the day, me and Andy shared a tear when we got elected, we knew we had worked for it

“We saw some proper heavyweights go, they have been screwed by the national swing.

“But if we hadn’t done the campaigning we did, we wouldn’t have won seats like mine.”

Coun Mee said he is ready for the challenge, despite being one of the youngest councillors to be elected at Broxtowe.

“I know I’m not going to be as sharp as people who have been there for 25 years, but I’ve got to build my knowledge up,” he said.

Coun Mee has previously been Broxtowe’s youth mayor and said he became interested in politics during the 2016 Brexit referendum.

His family have always supported the Labour Party and Coun Mee had ambitions to become a politician.

He said: “Looking to the future, I am interested in the East Midlands Mayor role.”